Combined tension-compression testing apparatus



Sept 30, 1952 w. J. GO'ODFRIEND COMBINED TENSION-COMPRESSION TESTING APPARATUS Filed June 2, 1947 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 dfriefid Ariroimns Mlhg e00 P 1952 w. J. GOODFRIEND 2,612,041

COMBINED TENSION-COMPRESSION TESTING APPARATUS Filed June 2, 1947 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTORNEYS Sept. 30, 1952 w. J. GOODFRIEND 2,612,041

I I COMBINED TENSION-COMPRESSION TESTING APPARATUS Filed June 2, 1947 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 /////////////X/ I l/ I 9 i INVENTOR.

as W lli J. Good/hem! I H-Il-r I I fi BY ATTORNBYa Sept. 30, 1952 w. .{LJGOODFRIEND 2,612,041

COMBINED TENSION-COMPRESSION TESTING APPARATUS Filed June 2 1947' 6 Sheets-She et 5 l 2 INVENTOR. r, 5 illg gmwr. Gqodfflencl ATTORNEYS Sept. 30, 1952 w. J. GOODFRIEND COMBINED TENSION-COMPRESSION TESTING APPARATUS e Sheets-Shet 6 Filed June 2, 1947 w T 0 M0 w J 8 Hm I 1 DY W ATTORNEYS parent operates to maintain rod 46 vertical irrespective of the position of the beam 30.

Secured to the beam 30 at 62 is the step bracket 64 which has sides 66 and 68 which are pitched at an angle to the horizontal equal to the cone angle of the conically shaped stop It. The stop Ill is mounted on the end of the screw 12 which is threaded through the bracket I4, which is in turn secured to the bottom of the beam casing. The screw I2 passes through the back of the beam casing and at its outer extremity has a knob IS. The stop I is mounted to be moved horizontally so that when it is simultaneously in contact with both stop bracket sides 68 and '88, it will lock the beam 30 in a horizontal position.

Exterior of the scale casing a counterbalance I8 is threaded to stud 80, secured to the beam 39 at 82. The scale casing is provided with a free passage for the stud 80 irrespective of the position of the beam 34. A shield 84 is secured to the scale casing to protect the counterbalance I8 and the stud 80 from being inadvertently touched- A pointer 86 moves over a scale 88 marked with an arbitrary scale. The scale 88 is supported by the legs 98 and is viewed through an opening in the front of the scale casing.

The pointer 86 is fixedly secured to the support 92, which is fixedly secured to the shaft 84. The shaft 94 is mounted in jewel or ball bearings at 96 and 98.

The pointer is actuated by the L-shaped arm I90, which is fixedly secured to the top of the beam36 directly above the pivot point. The bracket IIlil has an enlarged heart-shaped portion I62 in which is a slot I03 through which the shaft 94 can pass without touching the bracket I00 at any time. The pin IE4 is fixedly secured at one end to the lower portion of the pointer support 92 and at the opposite end has a radial ball bearing assembly I I35 which coacts with a slot IIlB in the lower portion of the bracket I04.

Removably secured on the top and bottom of the beam 34, respectively, are contacts I08 and I09. Contacts III! and H2 are fixedly secured to hell cranks I I6 and I I4, respectively. Bell cranks I I6 and I I4 are pivotally held in a slot in bracket II8 by bolts I 2I and I23 as shown in Figures 10 and 12. Leads III and H3 are connected to the bolts I2I and I23, respectively. Bracket H8 is constructed of an insulating material such as, for example, Bakelite and is pivotally mounted on a stand I20.

Coil spring I22 has its opposite ends secured to notches in the bell cranks H4 and IIS and is insulated from hell crank I I4 by rubber covering I25. Spring I22 tends to force cont-acts III] and H2 closer together and in so doing forces the overlapping portions of the bell cranks against the non-conducting stop I24, which is attached to a screw I26 having a knob I28. p The coil spring I3l is fixedly secured at one end to the bracket H8 and at the other end of a pin I33 secured in stand I and acts to keep bracket H8 in contact with stop I which is threaded in the casing I2.-

The leads III and H3 heretofore referred to are connected to an electronic relay arrangement which may be of any conventional type, for example, involving gas tubes as indicated in the wiring diagram in Figure 4. A transformer I4I, the primary of which is connected to the commercial alternating supply means, is provided with a plurality of secondaries including a high voltage secondary grounded at one end and at its other end connected to the anodes of a pair of gas tubes I43 and I45 in series with signal lamps I41 and I49. The cathodes of these tubes are grounded. The lines III and H3 are, respectively, connected to the grids of the gas tubes through protective resistances I5I and I53. They are also connected through resistances I55 and I5: to the ungrounded sides of a pair of secondaries adapted to provide grid bias. Contacts I68 and I99 are grounded through the beam 3|]. The transformer I4I may include an additional secondary (not illustrated) supplying the heaters of the tubes.

The tubes I43 and I45 may be of the 2050 type which are maintained in non-firing condition by negative potentials applied to their control grids but which fire, with a proper positive potential on their anodes, when the control grids are at cathode potential. The transformer secondary connections are made in such fashion that, when the beam does not ground either of the lines III or I I3, the anodes of the tubes are positive when the cathodes are driven negative by the several transformer secondaries. The tubes will, of course, not fire when the anodes are negative even though the control grids are then positive. Assuming that the beam grounds the line III, it will be evident that the grid of the tube I43 will then be at ground potential so that the tube will fire on each half cycle when its anode is positive. The rapid succession of current pulses will then light the signal lamp I41. Similarly, if the beam grounds the line I13, the signal lamp I49 will be lighted.

A displacement device shown generally at I 32 is removably secured to the standard 2 by the clamping bolt I34, which is similar to bolt I4 described in detail above. Inset in the block I36 is the key I38, which fits into'the keyway II] of the standard 2.

Secured to the front of the block I3ii is a dial indicator I44, which may be of the rack and gear type having a contact point I42. It is preferred to use a dial'indicator of the movable face zero setting type. Moving over the face of the dial indicator I45 are the pointer I44 and the tolerance hands Hit.

A movable vertical force rod I43 is mounted in the block I36- Threaded to the rod I48 is spiral gear I55, which in turn engages spiral gear I52.

' The gear I52 is secured to the shaft I54, which has a crank handle I56. Secured to the top of the column is a hook 558 and to the bottom of the column a pressure member m0. The column I48 is connected to the contact point I42 thrdugh the plate IE2 and the vertical rod I64, which is mounted thereon. A horizontal pin I is secured to pressure member I64 and rides in a vertical slot in collar IE8 preventing the rod I48 and fittings from rotating.

As specifically illustrative of the operation and usefulness of this embodiment of the invention, consider the problem of testing a compression coil spring to see if, for a given displacement, it exerts a force which is within the required tolerances.

In order to test a compression spring, we place the displacement device I32 on the standard 2 above the scale casing I2, as shown in Fig. 1.

With the stop Ii; holding the beam in the locked or horizontal position, the stop 22 is turned until either contact I Iii or I I2 touches its respective contact on the beam. Stop I3!) is then rotated to cause the contact to be' broken. The stops I24 and I30 ar'e'thus moved until the signal lamps I47 and I49 indicate that both contacts H6 and I i2 are just touching their respective contacts I89 and I33. This method of centering the contacts H :and H2, with. respect to the beam contacts, provides. for accuracy irrespective of any wear of the contacts.

In order now to set the contacts f ll) and. lid to the high and low limit positions in which it is d'esired to have them, the stop l-2'4 is"r'ot'ated clockwise thus forcing the contacts to move equally away from the beam contacts. "The beam stop 1-0 is turned counterclockwise sufficiently to permit the beam to have the desired freedom of movement. The beam is moved by hand until the pointer 86 indicates the high limit on scale 88. By the stop I24, the contact H2 is adjusted until it just makes contact 'with con'tact H18 as indicated by lamp Me. This procedure simultaneously sets the contact =1| In in? the proper low limit position. It is :apparent thatthisiprocedure could be reversed bystar tin'g' out with thelpointer 86 set on the low limit position.

It will be noted that the limits can be checked directly from the pointer 85 on the scale 88. However, much greater speed and accuracy can be obtained in testing by the use of signal lamps controlled by an electronic relay.

In order to counterbalance the weight of the spring to be tested, an identical spring is attached to the hook M. The beam is again locked in the horizontal position by stop Til. A weight, or,

position until the pressure member I63 touches 4 the spring and is then secured to the standard. The dial indicator M0 is set to zero and the column M8 lowered until the spring has been displaced the desired amount as indicated by the dial indicator. The stop 10 is now moved out to release the beam 30.

If the spring exerts the correct force for the displacement, the pointer 86 will be at zero on the scale 88 and obviously neither the contact 38 nor [09 will be in contact with its corresponding contact. If the force exerted for this displacement falls above or below the limits, the beam contacts will touch either contact H9 or H2 causing the corresponding signal lamp to indicate. The pointer 86 will likewise indicate whether or not the limits are exceeded.

It Will be noted that once the original set-up has been made for a certain design of spring having set limits, it is only necessary normally to pull the first spring out and compress the next spring by hand and insert it between the pressure member 1G0 and the platform 54 without making any further adjustments.

The spring 36 prevents a sudden shock from being transmitted to the beam incident to rough handling of the weight and the disc 4| acts as a stop for the rod 32 by abutting against the bottom of the casing if the rod 32 is pulled down an excessive amount. This prevents heavy shocks to the scale beam due to the stop bracket 64 being brought into forceful contact with the stop it incident to the rod 32 inadvertently being rapidly pulled down by weights, or other means.

If it is desired to measure the displacement of a compression spring when subjected to a specified force, the procedure is the same as that outlined above except the rod I48 would be adjusted until the force exerted by the spring balanced the force exerted by the weight on weight pan 34 and the pointer 86 was on zero. Then the dial indicator will indicate the displacement. The tolerance hands I346 may be set at the desired upper and lower limits of displacement to assist .in araipi'd determination of whether or not the springs displacement falls within the limits.

. In order to use this embodiment of the iii-Vention to test. tension springs-,;the displacement device i132 and the scale casing. t2 must be removed from the s'tandardiand reversed with the displacement device placed below the beam scale casing. The coil spring isthen supported onthe hook [it and secured to the hook I 58 on the rod hi3. In -all other respects the procedure for testing an extension spring is identical with the procedure used to test. a compression spring. It should be noted that the inventionis not limited to the specific embodiment illustrated and describedaboveiit being apparent that numerous modifications inv detail maybe made without departing from this invention.

What I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

heights, a Scale beam having means thereon to indicate the position of said b'earn pivotally I secured to. said su port iiiembe a vertical :bar pivotally secured to one end' o said: lbeamrand having means thereon for engaging a spring,

means secured to the other end or said beam to -counterbalance the force exerted on the scale beam through said vertical bar, a second support member adjustably and-removably 'secured to said standard at various positions thereon, a vertical force rod secured to said second support member and co-axial with said vertical bar, said force rod having means thereon for engaging a spring, means on said second support member to move the force rod relative to said second support member, and means in operative engagement with said force rod to measure the displacement thereof.

2. A force measuring device adapted for testing springs comprising a standard, a support member, said support member being adjustably secured to the standard selectively at various heights, a scale beam having means thereon to indicate the position of said beam, pivotally secured to said support member, a vertical bar pivotally secured to one end of said beam and having means thereon for engaging a spring, means secured to the other end of said beam to counter-balance the force exerted on the scale beam through said vertical bar, a beam locking device adjustably secured to said support member and adapted to selectively engage said beam, a second support member adjustably and removably secured to said standard at various positions thereon, a vertical force rod secured to said second support member and co-axial with said vertical bar, said force rod having means thereon spring, means secured to the other end of said beam to counter-balance the force exerted on the scale beam through said vertical bar, a pair of electrical contacts on opposite sides of said beam, a second pair of contacts apart from said beam adjacent said first pair of contacts, each of said second contacts adapted to abut one of said first pair of contacts when the beam is in an unbalanced position, an electrical circuit in operative association with said second contacts to indicate beam unbalance, a second support member adjustably and removably secured to said standard at various positions thereon, a vertical force rod secured to said second support member and co-axial with said vertical bar, said force rod having means thereon for engaging a spring, means on said second support member to move the force rod relative to said second support member, and means in operative engagement with said force rod to measure the displacement thereof.

4. A force measuring device adapted for testing springs comprising a standard, a support member, said support member being adjustably secured to the standard at various heights, a scale beam pivotally secured to the support member, a vertical bar pivotally secured to one end of said beam and having means thereon for engaging a spring, means secured to the other end of said beam to counterbalance the force exerted on the scale beam through said vertical bar, means to indicate the position of the beam comprising electrical contacts on the top and bottom of the beam, a pair of bell cranks secured to said support member and having their respective pivot points lying in the same vertical plane, a pair of respective ends of the bell cranks overlapping and the other pair of ends of the bell cranks respectively carrying contacts in opposition to the beam contacts, adjustable means abutting against the overlapping ends of the bell cranks, means on said cranks biasing the overlapping ends of the bell cranks towards said abutting means, a second support member adjustably and removably secured to said standard at various positions thereon, a vertical force rod secured to said second support member and co-axial with said vertical bar, said force rod having means thereon for engaging a spring, means on said second support member to move the force rod relative to said second sup port member, and means in operative engagement with said force rod to measure the displacement thereof.

WILLIAM J. GOODFRIEND.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 973,909 Benson Oct. 25, 1910 1,287,645 Crane Dec. 17, 1918 1,683,861 Cameron Sept. 11, 1928 1,908,412 Domina May 9, 1933 1,921,793 Thelander Aug. 8, 1933 2,009,691 Grist July 30, 1935 2,170,197 Gumprioh Aug. 22, 1939 2,338,057 Peterson Dec. 28, 1943 

